Mystery Crime Books

I really enjoyed this book! Miss Zukas is a gem, and the books keep me laughing.

A quick read. I would not recommend purchasing it. Check it out at your local library. There's really not much to it.

The unflappable Miss Zukas is a delight, as are the internal politics of the Bellehaven Public Library. Unfortunately, the plot hinges on a preposterous device -- work has begun on building a new library on a choice piece of real estate without there being anything in writing anywhere to show that this is what the donor intends to build. If you can accept this as a given, you'll enjoy Catalogue of Death.

I am a great fan of Jo Dereske's writing. Miss Zukas, although rather uptight and solitary, is a very sensible and believable character. Miss Zukas's character is evolving and developing into a person who can be more comfortable with risks and relationships.

An unexpected snowstorm blankets the town of Bellehaven, but the library must stay open. As a dedicated employee, Miss Helma Zukas knows just how essential the Bellehaven Public Library is to its citizens. Helma knew that the snow would cause mass confusion in an area unused to snow, but she never expected a literal explosion to occur. Suddenly, Helma finds herself in the midst of what is shaping up to be a murder investigation with the fate of the library's future site also in jeopardy.

CATALOGUE OF DEATH is the tenth book in the series featuring Miss Zukas. I haven't read any of the previous books and I suspect that many of the nuances of the tale were lost on me as a result. Helma is a difficult character to like. She is extraordinarily particular about things, not even wanting her food to be mixed as that is displeasing to her palate. Perhaps it is the shock of such a fastidious person investigating murder that appeals to fans of the series. Helma did commit some acts that seemed rather astonishing for her personality and long time readers of the series may pick up on some moments of dry humor.

Some of the secondary characters are far more likeable than Helma Zukas. Her friend and artist, Ruth Winthrop, is rather brash but her vibrant personality shines through the pages. She is a much needed and sharp contrast to the understated Helma Zukas. The head librarian, Ms. Moon, is a bit bizarre and her unwavering determination to have a new library built is maddening at times.

CATALOGUE OF DEATH should most likely be read in the context of the series rather than as a stand alone. As a stand alone, the slow pace is frustrating and many of the quirks of the established characters are unclear (I never totally understood the relationship between Helma and her apparently disliked cat, Boy Cat Zukas). Cozy mystery fans may enjoy this story involving an uptight and very prudent librarian if read in the series order so that the relationships and characters can be better developed.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

I started reading Ms. Scottoline books in the middle of this series and decided to go back to the beginning of the series, I am so glad I did.

Great Series!

Good book, great vacation/weekend read. I discovered Lisa Scottoline late in the game, and I em enjoying her books. I don't have as much time to read heavy modern fiction as I used to, and these novels really fill the space for me. As a defense attorney, I really admire and root for Bennie Rosato and her firm.

This book was alright, but at 561 pages, it should've tied up every loose end. I was completely blindsighted by the ending and it left me feeling extremely frustrated. I found the whole boxing story line unnecessary and boring. I don't think it connected smoothly to the plot or added to it. In fact, it opened up more questions concerning the boxing wives and their roles.

The story itself wasn't too believable, but it did keep my interest and I found the trial portion to be a real page turner. Bennie's character is not very likeable, in my opinion, but my main complaint about this book is the DiNunzio character. What happened to her? I've only read a couple of Scottoline's books, including her first novel, Everywhere That Mary Went, and in the first book DiNunzio was a confident, bright attorney who, along with Carrier, made partner at their firm, but planned to open their own firm. Granted, I didn't read any of the books between Everywhere That Mary Went and Mistaken Identity, but how could Mary DiNunzio have gone from being so strong, to being such a wimp? Her character in this book was so mousey, and every other line was "Catholics don't do this," and "Catholics don't do that." It was totally annoying. Her character in this book did a complete 180, which was very disappointing, because I was expecting Rosato and Associates to be a big powerhouse firm.

I will probably read more of Scottoline's books, but I hope that she allows Mary to have a personality in future books.

This courtroom drama features Bennie Rosato, the head of an all-female law firm. Bennie agrees to take on a murder case for a woman named Alice Connolly who is accused of killing her detective boyfriend, but who claims that she's been framed by the police. The most interesting part of the book centers around Alice's startling resemblance to Bennie and her assertion that she is Bennie's twin. Author Scottoline spins out the suspense throughout the book. Is Bennie truly Alice's twin or is Alice merely using a ploy to get Bennie to defend her? In this book the reader meets Bennie's ill mother and her absentee father, and Bennie examines what family really means. This is a fascinating story with lots of twists and turns which kept me guessing up to the last page.

This is not my favorite mystery/thriller, but it's a very good read with lots of unexpected bends in the road and enough to keep the reader glued to the very end. Mistaken Identity questions the ethics of both lawyers and police with the intensity only a former lawyer like author Scottoline can really delve into, and the results are sometimes overly analyzed but never boring--except for some of the courtroom scenes that occasionally drag on into infinity.

Imagine your surprise to discover a client who looks way too much like you to be coincidence and raises questions about your entire existence that make it hard for you to concentrate on getting your alleged twin off death row. Now imagine that same twin is guilty of everything else under the sun except for the murder she's serving time for and is insisting that the cops set her up. This story has so many wild twists and turns, plus an ending I never saw coming, that I couldn't leave it alone until I was done, but I must admit not knowing what all the coverup was about when the murderer was revealed.

All the way, Bennie Rosato's alleged twin Alice Connolly is an unlikable manipulator and liar, but she defends her with integrity and passion nobody else can quite understand except for Mary, a co-worker who also has a twin. The supporting characters that surround Bennie are what really make this book a pleasure to read, and the outcome will most likely leave you wide-eyed as it did me. You may come away at the end with a lot of questions about some of the loose ends, but I guarantee you a fast paced, exciting ride into the world of criminal defense and crooked cops. Check out Mistaken Identity for an unmistakably good, if at times uneven, read.

I love cozy mysteries and if Janet Evanovich is a Perfect 10 (which she is) in this genre, then Laura Levine is about an 8. Her characters are colorful and interesting, and it's great to have a female main character who isn't beautiful, beguiling, and the total envy of her readers. Jaine Austen is a spirited, curious, and entertaining writer-for-hire who finds detective work more intriguing than writing brochures for plumbers. This first story is a fun read and, although the end was a bit predictable, it was an enjoyable journey to the last page and left me ready, willing, and somewhat anxious to pick up the next installment.

I thought this book was excellent. It was a great mystery. Jaine is a talented writer. She writes a letter for a geek named Howard. It was to get him a date with his aerobics instructor. Unfortuately for Howard, he shows up for the date only to find to object of his affection murdered. Howard is charged with the murder and Jaine feels responsible. She starts investigating and finds out a lot of motives to kill stacy Lawrence, the aerobics instructor.

This book is filled with lots of funny scenes and an adorable cat named Prozac.

If you like mysteries, you will enjoy this series.

This delightfully funny cozy introduces us to Jaine Austin, a freelance writer in Los Angeles who specializes in writing things like resumes, personal ads, and brochures for plumbing companies. When Jaine is asked to write a love letter to sexy aerobics instructor Stacy Lawrence on behalf of geeky Howard Murdoch, she has no idea that Howard will end up being arrested for Stacy's murder. Jaine feels that Howard must be innocent, so she ensues on a hilarious search of trying to find the murderer herself.

This book was laugh out loud funny. I can't wait to read the other stories in this series!

This was a very, very fast read for me and I like books I can get into and finish. The main character is one many can relate to and it was just a fun read. I have started the series and am up to the 3rd book and they are all very fast and fun. I'd recommend anyone who likes a "cozy" mystery with humor and a "bumbling" heroine to pick this one up!

Like her namesake, Jaine Austen is a writer, but a freelance writer, meaning she'll take just about any job that will help pay the bills. So when geeky nerd Howard Murdoch shows up at her door asking her to write a love letter for him she agrees although she doubts gorgeous aerobics instructor Stacy Lawrence will agree to go out with him. Much to Jaine's surprise, Stacy agrees to go out with Howard on Valentine's Day! Alas, Howard's triumph is short lived when he shows up for the date and finds Stacy's murdered body. Detective Timothy Rea is convinced Howard is the killer, but Jaine's not so sure and sets out to clear his name. She has plenty of suspects, including Stacy's neighbors, coworkers, and ex-boyfriend. She needs to find who the killer is before she becomes the next victim.

"This Pen for Hire" is an extremely funny cozy mystery. The humor starts with the name of the heroine, Jaine Austen (her mother was a bad speller), and continues from there with the fact that the modern Jane is a writer but no, well no Jane Austen. Some of the funniest bits in the book are the writing she does for various companies. Jaine is a good heroine - struggling not only to find writing jobs to pay her bills but struggling with her weight and a bit insecure because of that. Her friend Kandi, a writer on the cartoon show Beanie and the Cockroach, adds to the humor in the novel as she is always looking for "Mr. Right". Of the rest of the characters, I'd like to see more of Jaine's nosy neighbor Lance.

Because the book is on the slim side and heavy on the humor, I was afraid the mystery elements would be underdeveloped, but I was pleasantly surprised. The murder was well plotted, with a good motive, plenty of suspects and some nice red herrings along the way. The writing is nicely done as if Jaine were talking directly to the reader and very enjoyable.

"This Pen for Hire" is a laugh out loud funny cozy mystery. The next book in the series is Last Writes (Jaine Austen Mysteries). Enjoy!

Praise you see for this book in reviews reflects the reverence people have for the subject matter and not the writing. If they were, in fact, addressing the author and her style, you'd see more words like "trite," "superficial" and "untalented." I had to check the "About the Author" section multiple times, just to make sure I wasn't being forced to read the self-published manuscript of a graduate student.

For everyone who read The Jungle and towards the end grew exasperated by unnecessary twist after unfeasible twist, this book will seem familiar. At least Sinclair had an excuse--he was writing a weekly feature in a newspaper. Revoyr, on the otherhand, has not justification for what can only be describe as mediocre writing. Okay, the main character is both a law student, a lesbian, asian, in a faltering relationship, estranged from her parents, her grandfather died, and she's investigating the 50 year old murders of 4 black teenagers. Her grandfather was the only asian in La who liked black people, and he was sent to an internment camp, and he served in WWII, and his store was torched twice by rioters, and he was an email aficionado in 1994. Are you serious? That's only to two characters--let us not forget her bisexual, biracial friend, her aunt who rejects the institution of marriage, the man who Jesus told to pick up bowling, a boy's father who killed 8 of his comrades in Korea without repercussion, and score of other entirely other implausible characters.

This book is a joke--and that is sad considering what a serious topic it is. I literally cringed with the turning of each new page, fearful of the lunacy I knew awaited me. It's like Revoyr threw in every possible cliched, and extreme character trait she could think of, and then an editor told her "why not shoot for the moon and make them all gay?"

And of course, it is all epitomized by the cover. It's a photograph of an old store front, with the title photoshopped in from WordArt. Like everything else in this book, we find big plans and little effort with a grand finale of poor results.

I agree with a prior reviewer- perhaps this book speaks most poignantly to those Angelinos who can know and feel the reality of Los Angeles depicted in its pages. I loved this book both for the natural beauty of LA which is sometimes lost in our daily lives - and way that it blended the Watts unrest through today to U.S. history of war and occupation. The characters are not cliche- they are very real and very familiar. As a 2nd gen Korean who grew up here the descriptions of JA characters as well as U.S. military in Korea and complicated Black/Asian relationships all resonated with me. As a community organizer working with low-income women of color and other immigrant workers - I found the same strange familiarity when "meeting" the social workers and non-profit folks in the story.

If you care about LA - you'll care about this story - more importantly, you'll see the truth in it.

As far as the first reviewer goes - it hardly mattered to the arc of the tale whether or not Jackie was queer or not - but it added a genuine personal dimension (without force or artifice) that I totally appreciated.

Perhaps this book is more pertinent towards a particular population of people. I am a Japanese-American who grew up in Southern California during the 60's, and this novel held a particular poignancy for me. Despite this, I found the book to be compelling and riveting. As the reader is taken through the multiple plot twists, a horrifying story emerges and the ending will leave you a different person. Love this book!

My wife found a reference to this novel in one of her Japanese language newspapers and suggested that I buy and read it. Am I ever happy that I did! Nina Revoyr has written a wonderful, gripping novel about some very tough times in our country, and has done so with understanding, compassion and feeling. Readers who lived through the era following World War Two will recall the ugly racial tensions of the era with all its denial, and the firestorms that erupted in Watts and other places as a result. Those who didn't live through it will get a harsh dose of reality as the protagonist searches for the killer of four black young men during the Watts riots, and the unexpected outcome as she discovers who the killer was.

I like Nina Revoyr's writing, I do not at all understand those who brush it off with comments like "trite," "mediocre" and "unrealistic." Having lived through that particular period in our history, I found the book very realistic. I hope Nina Revoyr keeps writing so that I can enjoy more of what she does. I couldn't put this book down.

George Polley
Seattle

It's obvious to me that the person writing this review did not read the book well. The people who died in the freezer were four Black boys, not Japanese. Because this book is about race relations, this is an important distinction.

As far as the book itself, it's enjoyable...a page turner. There are parts that are a bit overdone or that drag, but overall the book was very well-written and researched.

It really stunk. I've read other Boxcar Children books, but this stunk

The Boxcar children embark on another adventure only to run into trouble and then mystery atop a New England mountaintop. The mystery comes in the form of the whereabouts of a long-lost treasure that they learn about from an old Indian woman who says her grandfather hid it. The story takes a touching twist when the children meet a young Indian boy who also is looking for the treasure that he thinks belongs to him as the last member of the tribe to possess the secret goods. You'll be surprised by who eventually finds the treasure and what happens to each of the characters.

The boxcar children are on another adventure. This time they go hiking. Benny suddenly finds a hole. Is it just a hole or is it a cave? Find out when you read this book.

Henry, Benny, Jessie, violet and Grandpa are five people going mountain climbing. While they were there something unexpected happened.They spent the night and rescue came to help them.They go through many mysteries in this book.They meet two indians.It's a great book.I loved it.

How can a corpse show up in the middle of the desert, with no foot tracks leading to it or from it? Right next to a railroad track? That is how this book begins and it immediately captures your interest as Lt. joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police is brought in by an FBI agent to investigate. What makes this even more interesting is that neither the FBI, nor the Navajos have jursdiction in the case since there is no evidence of a federal level crime, nor is the crime performed on the reservation. Nonetheless, Leaphorn cannot abide by the mystery and he slowly unravels the depths of it through careful deductive logic and calling on his myriad of friends in all walks of life.

At the same time, Jim Chee is asked to arrest a white man who wants to be a Navajo but who is a fugitive from justice in Washington DC. Chee starts wondering about why the man is involved in Navajo religious affairs and how come he knows so much about it. Then, when his friend Janet Pete calls from Washington to ask him to help, he takes some vacation time off and flies out to help Pete.

Leaphorn also ends up in Washington as a result of his own investigations - and also on vacation! - so it is no surprise that they meet up and end up investigating what turn out to be related activities. In addition to these, the author throws in a distant country's internal turmoil, all kinds of Indian religious artifacts and ceremonies, and weaves all that in with a powerful sense of how much the Indians feel out of touch in a modern american city.

The plotting is very intricate but you quickly get the sense of how the various activites interrelate and the final scene that brings everyone together is somewhat of a letdown as it is so predictable. I still enjoy Tony Hillerman's writing style and story telling ideas so to have me take two stars away form his rating needs explanation: First star came off for the plotting which crossed the line from suspended dis-belief to ridiculous. Here are two cops, who both take vacation to the same city to investigate crimes or non-crimes? And the local police force is more than willing to have them access all kinds of crime scenes and have access to all the work that the locals do. And if it is not bad enough that the DC police does this, the FBI does it as well. Based on what?

The second star removed was because almost all of the action takes place in Washington which is far removed from the normal Hillerman haunts and it shows. The description of the city and its inhabitants suffers when you read any of his other books and realize how much better he is at describing the Navajo nation.

Overall, this is a pedestrian effort and only belongs in your library if you are an avid Hillerman fan - which I am.

This one is good, but not the typical Tony Hillerman book. Rather than being based in the Four Corners area, this one mostly takes place in Washington, D.C.

It is interesting to see D.C. through Navajo eyes, but we do spend a lot of time in the mind of the bad guy as well, which is to the detriment of the story in my mind.

Chee's personal life features prominently, as does Leaphorn's painful loneliness.

I would have rated the book as four stars, but I am reviewing the audiobook. My audiobook was read by John MacDonald and I cannot think of a worse pairing than MacDonald's voice and Hillerman's writing. It's not that MacDonald isn't clear - he's easy to understand. But, his voice sounds like Eastern establishment, not Western. This audiobook lasted about 6 hours and 35 minutes.

I love Hillerman's books. Not only are they entertaining, but they are filled with factual information about the Southwest. I am never bored, and usually finish one of his books in three days.
Suzie Chiles

A Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn mystery and one which shows the character and process of both men in the crime solving. Joe Leaphorn is investigating the death of a man found beside a railroad on the reservation, written in a notebook is a name, Agnes Tssose and a ceremonial. In a separate act Jim Chee is sent to Agnes Tsosse's Night Way ceremonial to find the man, Henry Highhawk who is visiting her, he has no idea why he has to arrest him, but observes him briefly before arresting him.

There are a number of threads running through her, but in seperate acts both Leaphorn and Chee end up in Washington DC following leads - Leaphorn to find out who the dead man is, and Chee following what is happening to Henry Highhawk and the Smithsonian.

Henry Highhawk is a born again Navajo - his grandmother is Agnes Tsosse but he has only just found that out - he has been learning all about the spirituality and culture of the Navajo and has been setting up a diorama at the Smithsonian to represent the masks of the gods, but it seems he has another presentation in mind. A much more visible act to get the world's attention and to protest against the continued storage of native American skeletons and remains at the museum.

However there are other forces at work, there is something going on at an embassy in Washington which Leaphorn suspects is related but he does not understand how - finally Jim Chee and Leaphorn meet up in Washington to compare notes and it all becomes clear.

The difference in the two men, in their styles of crime solving and the process is fascinating. Jim Chee is slightly more gauche, disturbing a tramp with unexpected results, and yet having much more of a spiritual belief. Joe Leaphorn is older, and while not necessarily more astute, he is much more poised.

I love these mysteries, I noticed someone said don't read this one first. I don't know about that, I have read these all out of order but I haven't read all of them either. This is a great book, a good demonstration of their abilities and a good read which keeps you guessing until the end.

I have been reading the Navajo mysteries for the first time, in chronological order. I was sad when each ended, and could barely wait to get the next one from the library...until this one. The plot is convoluted and far fetched with a LOT of holes, and I found the setting ugly and depressing, especially the character of the hit man. (This is the second hit man Hillerman's given us who owes it all to his unhealthy attachment to a disfunctional mama. Hmmmm...) I skimmed the last 4 chapters because I was tired of both the book and the setting...I just wanted it to see how it ended and be done with it because I was not enjoying the experience as I usually do.

So as other reviewers have advised: don't start here!

Ahh! What a delightful read! Travis sure does get himself in deep doo-doo from time to time, but typically, rises above the goop to salvage the broken lady. Good work, Trav!

Travis McGee is at it again in John D. MacDonald's 7th book in the McGee series, Darker Than Amber. McGee and his sidekick, Meyer, are minding their own business when a case is pretty much dropped in their laps. As the two men are fishing while tied up to a bridge, a woman is thrown off the bridge and sinks right in front of them like a stone. McGee dives overboard and is able to rescue the woman-despite the fact that her feet are wired to a cement block. The woman, Vangie, turns out to be a high-priced prostitute who was involved in a scam gone bad. It takes sometime, but McGee and Meyer are finally able to get the gist of Vangie's story, and they of course decide to help.

MacDonald does his usual job of providing a great tale of mystery, murder and intrigue. But one of the things I most enjoyed about Darker than Amber is that after having several cameo appearances in earlier books, we finally get to meet a fleshed-out Meyer. McGee and Meyer perform a good Dr. Watson/Sherlock Holmes routine, and their camaraderie rivals many of the other detective-sidekick combinations including Spenser and Hawk, and Poirot and Captain Hastings.

I am now 1/3 of the way through this 21 book series, and I have not been disappointed in a one. In fact, MacDonald just gets stronger and stronger with each subsequent book. It won't be long until I finish the entire series.

The Travis McGee series is a very extensive (21 books) series by John D. MacDonald; the main character is a delightful personality, something of a cross between a standard hero and a con man antihero, and the books are all well-written and enjoyable, something of a cross between action-adventure and detective-mystery. There are certain similarities between the plots of the books, but there are generally enough differences to keep them from being truly formulaic.

The books are all capable of standing on their own; a new reader can start with any one of them without feeling that he is missing anything, and this book is a perfectly good place to start, although it is the seventh written. The stories were set in the contemporary world, and are thus a bit dated now as they were written in the sixties and seventies, but this book is less jarringly so than some of the others.

"In that light the color of her eyes surprised me. Light shrunk the pupils small. The irises were not as dark as I had imagined. They were a strange yellow-brown, a curious shade, just a little darker than amber...She looked across at me and accepted the appraisal with the same professional disinterest with which the model looks into the camera lens while they are taking light readings."
- McGee sizing up Vangie, a very professional new acquaintance

I began reading the Travis McGee series at the wrong point - THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY - so it's a bit difficult for me to quite grasp the notion that Meyer, McGee's closest friend and a neighbour in the Bahia Mar marina, wasn't built into the series from the beginning. DARKER THAN AMBER introduces Meyer to the series as an already long-time friend, obscuring the fact that he's a new character, participating for the first time in one of McGee's cases from the moment a joint fishing jaunt turns into the rescue of a very tough pretty girl dumped off a bridge with a concrete block wired to her feet.

"I'm in the logic business, McGee. I deduce possibilities and probabilities from what I can observe. My God, man, compared to the mists and smokes of economic theory and practice, the world of actual events seems almost oversimplified. A corporate financial statement is the most nonspecific thing there is. If a man can't read the lines between the lines between the lines, he might as well stuff his money into a hollow tree."

Neither Meyer (whose preferred dealings with women are described here and seldom referred to again) nor McGee (who's just finished a short fling with a woman fleeing a bad marriage) are interested in a relationship with Vangie, but having saved her life and being impressed by her calm endurance, they'd like to help her if they could. A sometime call girl who turns out mysteriously to take frequent jaunts on cruise ships, she's been used as bait in a very complicated and profitable scheme a few too many times, and was being disposed of before her vestigial conscience could inconvenience, let alone threaten, some slick operators. Unfortunately (though perfectly in character), Vangie doesn't open up to Meyer and McGee, and McGee only begins uncovering the truth in the wake of a supposed hit-and-run, frustrated at the waste of someone he rather liked and wished well. "You feel good to do a thing like that. And then when they take what you saved and see how high they can splash it against a stone building, you get annoyed."

The first third of the book sketches in McGee's immediate past and introduces Meyer, then details their first successful rescue attempt, including a lot of analysis in passing about what type of situation Vangie must be mixed up in for such a murder attempt to occur, McGee's odd streak of prudery about women, and Meyer's coexisting cold-blooded analytic turn of mind and his ability to make friends with nearly anyone, anywhere. Investigating Vangie's place and her acquaintances turns up the only story elements that really fix it in time at 1966: a member of the housekeeping staff who's an undercover civil rights activist.

McGee's self-image as a knight in somewhat tarnished tomato-can armor fits well with this story, as the damsel in distress has been involved in the seamy side of the entertainment industry most of her life and the scam that brought about her death is *very* sleazy indeed.

Notable story elements:
- Florida's cruise ship industry is featured quite a bit, since it's integral to the scam Vangie was involved in.
- Oddly enough, Vangie's short stay on the Busted Flush isn't the point at which MacDonald brings in one of his standard sex scenes; that's done earlier in flashback as McGee reviews his recent first-aid fling with a newly separated woman.
- Interesting contrast between Noreen Walker, maid by day and civil rights activist by night, and various characters of color in THE GIRL IN THE PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER, a few books on.
- Some very clever bits of detective work, from Meyer and McGee's joint analysis of Vangie's character to McGee's location of Vangie's financial stash to the solving of the main puzzle.

"Time for one game?"
"If you promise if you get white not to open with that infuriating queen's gambit."
- McGee and Meyer

While I still find "Flash of Green" to be my favorite MacDonald book, there's something so appealing about the Travis McGee series that keeps me coming back to them. And "Darker than Amber" has such a quick pace, that you cannot put this mystery down. And Travis, well, he's just Travis--you gotta love this guy! I just hope that MacDonald continues to gain in popularity, as I feel he is horribly overlooked.

Big Red Tequila introduces Tres Navarre, the unlicensed private investigator, t'ai chi master and English Ph.D. However, in this first book in the series, Tres seems a smaller, humbler figure as he returns home to face the ghosts of his past, including the unsolved murder of his father and the girlfriend he abandoned ten years earlier. He receives a less than Texas-friendly reception as his very presence stirs up memories of the shooting of his father the Sheriff, as well as his decision to cut and run to California. The near universal contempt he encounters from the elders of San Antonio is magnified when his homecoming coincides with the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Of course, this disdain and periodic run-ins with thugs (who are no match for his martial arts skills)only serve to deepen his resolve. However, the further he digs, the more he finds out that there are some family secrets which should remain hidden.

San Antonio writer Rick Riordan does an admirable job of turning his sun-drenched hometown into a landscape of Gothic menace. Although this is ostensibly a mystery novel, it has elements of a spaghetti Western as the loner hero must face down menace and treachery on every side. Fortunately, there are comic elements, such as Robert Johnston, the enchilada eating cat and Gary Hales, the nosy landlord with a penchant for watering concrete, which keep the drama from becoming overwhelming.

Well-drawn characters, vivid locales and a twisting plot keep this story exciting to the end.

The Average Customer Review is four stars, and I agree. It seems everyone has a detective novel these days, and I would think it would be difficult to create a new character that stands out from the pack. Riordan has done this with Tres Navarre. The next couple Navarre novels get better, so start here.

A toughguy who likes Tai Chi - how unpredictable. No, really. Oh, and he has a beautiful but neurotic ex, and then a stable ex, and there's supposed to be drama. And then he investigates some plot retired from old episodes of Dallas twenty years ago. This isn't badly written, and if you haven't seen through Robert Parker yet, maybe you'll still enjoy it, but to me it was predictably "unpredictable" and devoid of any real reading value.

This is Rick Riordan's first novel and it is wonderful. Tres Navarre is introduced (as this is a series) as a PI in San Antonio. This book will delight those who like mystery/thrillers or books that take place in Texas. Riordan is a masterful writer who does an extremely well job of describing his characters and surrounds. Read this book and the ones that follow and you will not be dissappointed.

I picked up on the Tres Navarre series by Rick Riordan in the middle, with Southtown, which was an incredible novel with indelible characters and a page-turning mystery plot. I had to check out this series from the beginning, and The Big Red Tequila, the first book in the series, didn't disappoint me.

Tres Navarre is returning to his hometown of San Antonio after years in California. Two things draw him back--the longing to find out if a perfect romance from early in his life can be rekindled, and the need to find out who killed his father, a law enforcement officer who was gunned down in front of Tres when he was 13.

I love everything about this book--from the real feel of the setting (I've never been to San Antonio but can hear/smell/feel/taste it from the descriptions) to the dialogue, to the memorable characters who are no where near perfect but still likeable people--except for the bad guys, who are suitably vicious. I even love Tres' insane cat, Robert Johnson.

I went right on to the next book in the series (Widowers Two Step) and liked it just as much. Can't wait to read more of this author!

Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald is entry number 20 in the popular Travis McGee series.
Early in the narrative Norma Lawrence, niece of Travis McGee's friend the economist Dr. Meyer, dies in an explosion at sea. Soon after that McGee and a heartbroken Meyer leave Ft. Lauderdale to take on the seemingly impossible task of finding Norma's killer. The trail, an exceedingly faint one, takes them to several cities and towns in Texas, the outskirts of Utica, NY and ultimately to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
MacDonald has McGee and Meyer perform some very clever detective work along the way while introducing a number of interesting supporting characters. More than just a detective story, Cinnamon Skin succeeds in delivering some very interesting takes on human nature as the captivating plot unfolds.
This is a very well written novel. Fascinating characters, evocative prose and a page turner of a plot all make Cinnamon Skin a must read for mystery lovers and fans of great fiction in general. Highly recommended.

For fans of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series, this entry will not disappoint. This was the second-to-last McGee novel that MacDonald wrote, and it has been my experience that they kept getting better and better as they went along (the first of the series were good, although a little chauvinistic and dated due to being written and set in the early 1960's).

What makes this novel so compelling is that villain is incredibly fascinating. The story is not so much a typical whodunit mystery, as McGee knows fairly early in the book who the bad guy is, but rather a character study of a complex and superbly realized antagonist. In this case, the culprit concerned is a charismatic and manipulative sociopath who seduces women, marries them, and kills them for their money. The story is propelled mainly by McGee's search for this elusive monster and the gradual unwraveling of the events that made him the way he is.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book. The only reason it lost a star is because I found MacDonald's dialogue to be unremarkable in the sense that most of the characters talk pretty much the same way. In other words, he doesn't really know how to do voice.

To paraphrase a cliche: Travis McGee books are like pizza; even when they're not great, they're still pretty good.

But usually the major narrative faults don't fully occur to me until after I've finished them. During "Cinnamon Skin," though, I was noticing them left and right.

The main villain -- a chameleon who marries women, drains their money and murders them -- is pretty old hat. The story is extremely low on action (one clumsy fight; one badly sketched death by auto accident; one shoot-out that ends rather ludicrously). And did this book really need the appearance of a well-connected Mayan princess? Well, maybe... but it strains credibility.

"Cinnamon" isn't without its virtues: It's cool to see Meyer get such a big supporting role; cool, also, to see the rare sight of McGee clearly botching a relationship and, later, baiting his ex in a pretty high school way. He's not the fresh tough guy he used to be and even, at one point, gets mad at younger characters for moving too fast for him.

This was the first McGee I'd read that was written in the 80s. It's funny because whenever I visualize MacDonald's novels, I always see them in stark, CinemaScope, Technicolor terms. I visualize them existing in much the same, bright, 60s, go-go world as "Point Blank" and "Harper," with the later jaunts perhaps resembling "The Parallax View." So it was funny to me to read references to things whose appearance in the pop culture world I remember: McGee actually reads "Cujo" at one point, and grouses about the loser kids at a videogame arcade. Startling at first, but eventually pretty amusing.

"My God, McGee, can't you come up with something more original?"
"I thought it was."
"It's a song, you idiot. Piel Canela: Cinnamon Skin. They sing it all over Mexico."
- sometimes a compliment just doesn't work

CINNAMON SKIN begins on an ominous note; McGee's gentle, scholarly friend Meyer, a year after the events of FREE FALL IN CRIMSON, is still suffering from having broken in the face of some very heavy threats by a particularly murderous psychopath. (As CINNAMON SKIN is self-contained - McGee summarizes Meyer's situation for his current, unusually long-running girlfriend Annie Renzetti at the start of the book - it isn't necessary to read CRIMSON first, although since it introduced Annie as well as Meyer's problem I'd recommend having it handy at least to read afterward.)

However, just as the reader may begin to suspect that this book will follow a predicable formula - Meyer helps McGee with a salvage operation, regains his self-respect - two separate plans to try to help Meyer out yield unexpected results. An old friend and colleague has arranged for Meyer to give a talk in Canada, while Meyer's only living relative, his niece Norma, arranged to visit with her new husband Evan Lawrence, and thanks to crossed wires Meyer's out of town for part of Norma's visit while she and Evan stay aboard his houseboat, the JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES.

Consequently, when Meyer's boat is bombed and lost with all aboard while on a fishing jaunt, Meyer himself isn't there. He's lost the last of his family, his home, and nearly everything he owns thanks to a self-proclaimed terrorist attack - but *that* snaps him out of his frozen depression. He's determined to see Norma avenged, and McGee (of course) is in on this from the start.

But the facts don't add up. The supposed Chilean outfit that claimed responsibility doesn't seem to exist, and nobody else involved in Meyer's only Chilean-related project has ever been threatened. Who was the intended victim? Hacksaw Jenkins, a straight-arrow charterboat row captain known to stay away from drug action? Norma, a rising young field geologist for a Texas oil company? Evan, a footloose good ol' boy?

The scene quickly moves from Florida to Texas as Meyer and McGee begin digging into the recent past of Norma and Evan. The necessary formalities of settling Norma's estate quickly set them on the beginning of a very long trail, where the missing pieces are the most significant of all: missing people, and missing money. The most notable settings in the book are Texas in high summer (various places, Meyer and McGee do a lot of driving without many fast-talking scams) and Cancun (which was a very new development at the time of the action of the book).

Several nice touches, a few of which I'll mention. McGee's relationship with Annie, the very successful manager of a hotel in Naples, has issues other than his long field trips for his job: *her* job involves working for a large company, with up-and-out promotion prospects. Various discourses all over the map, from a brief chat with a farm equipment supplier on the smartest farmer in his county (who works his land with mules) to time-shares in Cancun to various grieving relatives of several people who surely would hate for the state to take several years to try this case and then call it second-degree.

I rather enjoy Michael Pritchard as a reader for unabridged McGee stories, but tastes may vary.

If there's anywhere I'd rather go with Travis McGee other than Florida, it's Mexico. John D. MacDonald dives into the country's culture and landscape in "Cinnamon Skin" with his patented combination of cynicism, idealism, lechery and expertly rendered action, and you'll be really glad you came along for the ride.

"Cinnamon" is one of the later books in the series, and finds Travis and Meyer a little the worse for wear, time and loss having taken a toll. Travis starts the book by losing yet another good woman, and Meyer's still traumatized by events in the book before. That's what makes this series so great--the author's willingness to bring us along as his characters age, suffer and make mistakes.

I'm a younger, female reader, but have yet to find any mystery writer working today who even comes close to MacDonald. Basically, when I need a mystery fix, I'm more likely to re-read one of these than bother with the hacks that clutter the best-seller lists. Warm thanks to the publishers who brought out these spiffy new editions--even though a big part of the fun of discovering MacDonald is stumbling across the tattered original paperbacks with 1970s reciepts used as bookmarks and "Valley of the Dolls"-like babes on the covers.
Enjoy, and don't waste any more time on the inferior imitations!

I am enjoying reading this series and this was the best so far. It was very hard to put the book down once I got started.

This book works on many levels. It works as a mystery and as a story for anyone who has ever had to meet new in-laws and older friends of their new spouse.

I enjoyed this book it reels you in as if you are a part of the characters. Definetly recomend the series to all mystery readers.

This was my first Benni Harper book and I loved it! I will admit, though, I got to meet a lot of people in my next book since this one didn't have any of the major secondary characters. I love the dynamics of the Benni/Gabe relationship and how real it is!

Benni Harper and her new husband, Gabe Ortiz leave California for a vacation in Kansas so that Benni can meet Gabe's family and old friends. The experience is stressful for Benni because she knows very little of Gabe's background or former life. As usual, Gabe is not into explaining things to Benni and they are constantly locking horns in between their flirting. Gabe's sister shares Benni's love of quilts and asks for her help in setting up a local quilt show. In the mean time, the murder of a young woman singer named Tyler takes place. She happened to be dating Gabe's old friend Rob and he is a suspect in her death. Tyler was also a runaway wife from the local Amish community and a superb quilter. When Benni sees the last quilt that Tyler made, she discovers some clues that could lead to the identity of the killer.

There's a lot of fascinating "quilt talk" in this book and some interesting facts about the state of Kansas. This is the third book in the Benni Harper series and I'm now committed to reading them all.